Our site is http://4low.ca – If you’ve got a 4×4 and want to go offroading, get in there and meet some people and come out to a wings night!

We went on our first club run last weekend, out to Cardinal Falls. When we got there, we decided to go to Ruby Falls instead, and it was an awesome time! I got lots of HD footage and finished up a video for it this weekend. Check it out, and let me know what you think in the comments section on youtube.

-Davin

My brother called me tonight, sort of stranded. He was out in the Jeep, on his way to work in another city, and couldn’t get his headlights to turn off. Even with the vehicle turned completely off, the headlights will stay on, and the high beam indicator on the dashboard is also on.

After a bit of google searching it appears this is an issue with the daytime running lights (DRL). The module on the firewall will malfunction and cause all the symptoms above. Disabling the module by simply unplugging it will remove the DRL functionality, but will not prevent your headlights from working. You will no longer have a high beam indicator, but your low and high beams will still work.

The module on the firewall can be found under the hood, close to the master cylinder near the driver’s side. It’s a 3″x3″ black box, and you should be able to unplug it by hand.

Here’s a picture of it I found online.

If you still want to have the normal functionality of your DRL, it looks like a new module can be bought online for about $40.

-Davin

- It comes with a wireless remote. You install a small module and antenna under the hood, and run a plug out your grill and attach it to the back of the winch so it’s ready to plug in like a normal remote when you need it. You don’t want to leave it plugged in all the time in case someone grabs your remote thingy and starts pressing buttons asking (WHATS THIS DO?!). No, this hasn’t happened to me, but I thought it could.

- It has an automatic clutch. This means it will engage the clutch when you start winching. This allows you to release the clutch, walk to the tree and hook up, and then start winching without having to walk back to engage the clutch. This is especially useful if you have a winch bitch.

Anyway.. here are a few pictures. I also made a small aluminum bracket to attach to the bolts of the fairlead that I can mount my old KC lights.

- Davin (Raskull)

- Davin (Raskull)

I’ve also got pictures lined up for the install of a few other things, so you can expect some new stuff here soon.

-Davin (Raskull)

In every wheelers life, there will come a time when you need or want new tires. Or maybe you got new wheels, either way you’re looking at a fairly hefty bill to get them put on for you. A tire shop usually charges around $25/tire for mounting and balancing. I decided to try and do it myself this time, as I already had a pretty good idea of what to do.

Tools: Hi-lft jack Two or more good sized pry bars Dish soap Air compressor Ratchet strap Floor jack Jack stand Tire iron Parts: A box of 6000+ BBs Time: 25 minutes per tire Gallery for this write-up: http://myjeeptj.com/wpg2?g2_itemId=13752

1: To start off I’m going to warn you of a couple things right off the bat. Firstly, this is not easy and will take some elbow grease to get done. Secondly, if you are working with nice shiny new wheels you may want to get some practice on some older ones before you continue. It’s very easy to mark up the rims when doing this, especially if you’re doing it with aluminum rims or small bias ply tires which are very tough to get off the rims. If you’re like me and your rims edges are already marked up, and you don’t mind a few more, then read on.

3: Let all the air out of the tire. A valve core remover is a great little tool to have around for this because it will speed this up greatly, but it’s not needed. With the tire empty, you are ready to break the bead on it.

4: This is where your hi-lift comes in handy. Place the tire underneath a place where you can place a large amount of upwards pressure with a hi-lift. The rim must be placed shiny side (or outside) up! Another jeep with a strong bumper or rockers to jack to is the best way. I did it on my own rockers with one tire on a jack stand which I would not recommend, but if you are careful and keep a mindful eye not to let your jeep drop off the jack stand you can get away with it. Once again… I do not recommend using your own jeep if it’s not on all four tires! Place the foot of the jack near the bead next to the rim’s edge. Jack up the hi-lift and it will place enough downward pressure on the bead to pop the tire off the rim. Once that is done, flip the tire over and repeat on the other side. Because the rim’s narrower spot is closer to the outside, you may need to do the backside from a couple different locations around the rim.

5: Place the tire on the floor with the outside of the rim facing upwards again. If you press downwards on the tire you can see the outside of the rim. See how there is a part of the rim that is narrower inside than the rest? Press downwards on the tire with your knees and get one side of the bead in that narrower section. Then with a pry bar, you’re going to reach down into the opposite side of the tire and pry part of the bead outside the rim. The idea is to get the bead of the tire as far away from the rim edge as possible while you pry on it.

6: Now that we’ve got it started you can use your other pry bar to work your way around the rim, prying the bead of the tire over the rim edge. Don’t try to take on large sections at a time… you need to work your way around in small pieces, and it will take some time to do so. You will find what works best for you. If you find that the tire bead is not staying on the outside once you pry it over, use a third prybar to keep it in place as you go along. Keep working at it until you have one side of the tire completely off the rim.

7: Flip the wheel and tire over again. We’re now going to pry the rim out of the tire on the backside. This is done so we can take advantage of that narrower section of the rim again. Start off the same way as you did with the last step. Get one side of the tire in the narrow section of the rim, and pry the tire off from the opposite side. Once you have this done, you can continue prying the rim out all the way around just like the last step. This side is substantially harder to do and it will take some elbow grease to get it out. Once again, there will be a little trial and error here to find what works for you with your set of prybars/tires/rims, etc. After this step, it’s all easy going!

8: With the tire and rim separated, you’re ready to start putting it back together with the new item you’re putting on.. whether it’s a new wheel or tire. Start off by putting the valve core back in rim if you removed it. Now is a really good time to check the beads on the tire and or wheel for damage, dirt, mud, cuts, or anything else that would prevent a good seal. Hit the bead on the wheel and tire with a wire brush to get it ready for a good seal. Use a hammer and chisel to carefully remove all the balancing weights on the wheel. Grab a healthy dose of dish soap and get the bead of the tire lubricated really well. This will make it easy to get back on the wheel, and also aid in seating it later when you’re filling it up with air. My rims had a *LOT* of mud in the beads, and it took a good 15-20 minutes of cleaning per rim to get them clean.

9: Lay the rim on the floor, shiny side up. Place the tire on top (Remember to check that it’s mounted correctly! White or black side out? Is the tire directional?) and push it down onto the bead with your knees. Try to get the first side you place in that narrow section of the rim. With the tire sitting correctly, you should be able to use your knees and hands to get the first side of the tire over the rim by hand without prying at all.

10: Now that it’s half seated, use your prybars to pry the outside bead of the tire onto the rim. You should already know how this is done by now, and this is much much easier than taking it off. Go slow and be patient and you won’t mark up the rims on this step. Now is the time to add BBs if you are planning on balancing them yourself. I won’t get into this topic at all because a google search will net you more than enough information on the topic, and if I were to write about it, it would need it’s own write-up.

11: Prop the tire and wheel up, and put air to it. Depending on the wheel/tire combo you are using this can be either really easy, or quite tough. I was putting a 12.5″ wide tire on a 8″ wide rim, and I didn’t do anything at all. It simply took air and seated itself. If you’re using a combination that is a little closer together you may need to do a few things here. You can start off by putting a ratchet strap around the circumference of the tire and cinching it up. This places outward pressure on the beads and will help it seat on the wheel. You can also push inward with a small amount of pressure in certain spots on the wheel until you don’t hear the hissing noise of air escaping. This takes a little practice, and possibly a lot of patience. It sometimes helps to have a friend to push in on the other side the same way. I’ve heard horror stories of this being really difficult, but I have never had too much trouble. Once it starts to “take air”, it will sound quieter, and eventually it will pop the bead of the tire into the bead seat of the rim. If you didn’t lube the tire up it can make a really loud BANG when it happens, but don’t be alarmed.

11: Air up the tire to your desired pressure, and mount it back on your Jeep TJ. 95 ft lbs is the correct torque setting. Have a beer and think of the money this is saving you, and dive into your second tire of five.

Now it’s time to go in the house and get on the internet and find the best way to spend the $100 you just saved. It’s a lot of work, but doing this yourself is very satisfying, and I plan on doing my own from now on. You also get the benefit of making sure they are all mounted correctly, instead of having to back to the tire shop at a later date when you notice one of the tires is mounted with the white lettering out! I can imagine you have guessed why I say this. Good luck! Please leave a comment if you used this article for your Jeep. Leave a comment with any findings you discovered that I did not talk about as well. I would love to hear from you, good or bad! If you have any questions or would like to talk about a different topic, go ahead and post up on the myjeeptj.com forums!

-Davin (Raskull)

I installed them myself which included removing my old tires from the rims, polishing the rims, installing the new tires and adding BB’s for balancing. It was a very hard day’s work, but it probably saved me $100 or more in tire shop fees.. so I can’t complain. I will have a write-up very soon to show how I did the install myself with a little bit of elbow grease.

Here’s a shot of the jeep now.

Anyway, the point to all this is this. There is a little place on the internet called the Way Back Machine. It’s an archive of almost any site you can imagine that ever was. I looked up the Nth Degree site and came upon their old FAQ section. There is some pretty awesome tech in there so I figured I would share it with you guys.

Here is a direct like to the archive of their FAQ.

Here’s some of the more interesting stuff I found:

Vibrations on an 03+ automatic trans TJ

There are several ‘built in’ vibration problems with ‘03+ TJ’s – though ironically the biggest one is usually solved by ditching the factory center skid because it ‘drums’ in response to normal powertrain vibes (which the engine/trans mounts usually absorb). If you have an automatic trans, there is a wavering ‘droning’ sound that happens whenever the trans is in OD – because the .69:1 ratio aligns with the third-order firing frequency of the I-6 engine – you can’t escape this issue except to use the OD lockout button to keep the trans from shifting into OD so prematurely. If this sounds like your issue, try hitting the OD lockout button while driving between 45-55mph and see if it makes the issue go away – then you know what it is.

What’s the deal with death wobble / shimmy?

A doctoral dissertation could be done on shimmy (aka ‘Death Wobble’)…It is not so much a ‘design flaw’ but rather an engineering challenge that has yet to be absolutely overcome in suspension design…and we off-roaders just have to live with it more than the rest due to the fact that we do “all the wrong things” to our rigs and basically invite shimmy to happen as a result. Shimmy continues to defeat even the best full-compliance vehicle dynamics modeling programs (Jeep uses ADAMS). The phenomenon is pretty well researched, but it plagues even the factory at times…Jeep almost had to delay/cancel one model launch because it developed a shimmy problem during the last run of prototype parts – only 3 months before launch. We had to ‘tweak’ four things about the suspension to make it go away: reduced lift height to +0.6” from the traditional 1.0”, change durometer of front LCA bushings, re-valve steering damper, and change nominal caster spec…”traditionally”, the last two are the primary things that affect the risk of shimmy, but another major player is front tire balance…they must be *dynamically* balanced (i.e. weights on both rim edges, so the wheel/tire assy is balanced in all planes, not just one).

So here’s the ‘techno-speak’ dissertation on shimmy: It is an imbalance of the gyroscopic forces generated by the spinning front tire/wheel assys…when the ‘setup’ of the front end is ‘vulnerable’ to starting shimmy, it happens due to an asymmetrical force (i.e. one tire hits a bump that the other doesn’t) or also it can happen when the bump-force is not even side-side (in this case it usually happens at higher speed due to say a ‘swell’ on the highway). The problem is worst with wheel-wheel tie-rods (which is why the TJ and most late Jeeps use the Haltenberger linkage – aka ‘inverted Y’ design) because the tires can ‘crosstalk’ directly to each other. The larger/heavier the tire/wheel assy’s are, the stronger the inertia and thus the worse the shimmy can be if it starts….of course a damper is the most direct defense once shimmy starts, but what you *really* want is for it to not start in the first place. For that, you have to look at the ‘free-body diagram’ of the forces that can influence the stability of a spinning front tire/wheel assy. The key for shimmy issues is the distance between the ‘center of tire contact pressure (CTCP, which is not directly below the hub due to ‘pneumatic trail’ – it’s actually further back.) This is the effective center of downforce of the tire’s contact patch when it’s moving/rolling) from the ‘steering point’ (the point where the steering axis intersects the ground plane). If you leave the caster setting at the factory spec of 6-8 degrees while increasing tire diameter from 27-28” to 33-35”, then you’ve effectively *increased* this distance (and therefore the imbalance force it can generate), while at the same time you’ve increased the mass that drives this force (the larger/heavier tire/wheel assy), so when things get to shimmying, they REALLY shimmy! So…what to do? If you’ve followed this far, the answers are easy to ‘guess’, but should be divided into ‘preventative’ and ‘band-aid’ fixes:

Preventative (i.e. will reduce the likelihood of shimmy, in guessed order of empirical relative effectiveness):

1) Keep wheel/tire mass low (i.e. run stock-sized-or-close tires and/or aluminum rims – both of which are likely unacceptable to a real ‘wheeler)

2) Keep CTCP – to – steering point distance short by running stock-ish diameter tires (also not acceptable)

3) Reduce the CTCP – to – steering point distance by reducing caster (moves steering point back towards CTCP)

4) Run radial tires!

5) Dynamic balance the tire/wheel assy’s (weights on both rim edges)

6) Avoid direct wheel-to-wheel tie rods, or if so, have deliberate ‘compliance’ in the tie rod (i.e. not too stiff, but steering feel/precision will suffer)

7) Maintain high lateral stiffness via proper trackbar design and bushing rates (i.e. no non-preloaded urethane bushings and hollow-tube t-bars!)

8) Tune front control arm bushings on the ‘stiff side’ (i.e. high-ish durometer…TJ uses stiffer LCA bushings than XJ for example, due to trackbar bracket stiffness differences, etc.)

9) Drive slow and/or don’t hit any bumps!

Band-aid-type fixes:

1) Heavy-valved steering damper (helps a lot if tire/wheel mass is 100# per assy or less. Multiple dampers will help with heavier setups, but too much damping will limit steering response time)

2) Match all compliances together to allow drastic violation of above guidelines (i.e. apply a lot of engineering to the bushings and linkage stiffnesses while screwing up the other engineering parameters…)

…so what’s the “Bottom Line”? It’s this: the stock caster spec is NOT the appropriate spec for your lifted Jeep running bigger tires. For 33” tires, I recommend about 5.0 degrees, and for 35” – about 4.0 degrees.

Ultimately your issues (or not) with shimmy will be determined by how well your rig is ‘set up’ either by you or your shop…so the main thing we’re doing is putting some watered-down version of the above in our product instructions (i.e. a new caster spec based on tire size), but also we’ve made sure that the lower caster setting is in the middle of the adjustment range so you have a chance of setting proper caster (which I’ve found isn’t possible with some lifts), and this will help you understand why we’ve designed the front trackbar as a factory-type one-piece solid forging with high-durometer, rate-plated bushings and a stiff trackbar bracket/brace.

TJ vibration around 30mph

If the vibration starts at about 30mph and increases linearly with speed, then it may be driveshaft balance

Vibrations at start up

Momentary vibes at start up come from one of three sources (all the usual vibration-producing ones):

1) The engine. If you gearing isn’t as low as it ‘should be’ for the tire size you’re running, you may be launching at too low an RPM, causing the engine to ‘lug’ which will produce a stronger-than-normal vibe until the engine ‘spools up’ to it’s preferred operating range.

2) Trans. If you have an automatic, the new 42RLE 4-speed has lots of vibration issues that the factory failed to overcome since they are inherent in the fact that that trans is supposed to be Chrysler Cirrus FWD transaxle (that’s what they derived it from). The torque converter on that trans is stupid-small and could ‘shudder’ at launch for the same reason as #1 – gearing not low enough. BTW: “low enough” is not just the mathematical correction for tire size, you also have to factor in added rolling resistance for knobby tires, etc. Ironically, with this auto tranny’s super-tall OD gear (.69:1), you want to run 4.88′s with just 33″ tires, running with more means your essentially ‘undergeared’

3) Driveshaft Angles. I assume you have a double-Cardan (aka ‘CV’) rear driveshaft. Even so, if you have substantial angle at that rear DC joint, it *can* create vibes under load since it’s not really a ‘Constant Velocity’ joint – typically these non-constant-effects are subtle and you don’t notice them, but at 15+ degree operating angles under heavy load, you might.

Shock length vs. proper bump stop spacing

Everybody wants to run the longest possible shock, but this is not the only key to ‘maximum travel’, and running too-long shocks comes with several penalties/side effects. Shocks (and the brackets they’re mounted to) are not designed to be your up-travel (compression) limiter – your jounce bumpers are (aka ‘bump stops’). Your lift kit should have included bump stop spacers – but probably not enough…most lift kits don’t come with the appropriate amount of spacing…if you have a 4” lift, you need roughly 4” of spacers! Proper matching of suspension travel and shock minimum and maximum length is a basic requirement for a proper-functioning suspension that most suspension companies leave to you!

You must check your TJ to make sure the shocks do not bottom before the bumpstops are compressed (the jounce bumper can be completely compressed within the cup it mounts into). A reasonable method for determining whether your shocks are too long is to flex your TJ until a wheel is in the air while the vehicle is going ‘up hill’ (forward on an RTI ramp) – then check to see that there is some compression travel still remaining in the ‘stuffed side’ rear shock. If you can’t see the shaft due to a dust boot, unbolt the lower end while flexed and see how far up you can push it. If the bumpstops aren’t fully compressed (or don’t even touch!) before the shock bottoms out and you do not correct this with longer bumpstop extensions or shorter shocks, you WILL have problems with your shock mounts – whether using the Shock Shifter or not.

Since most aftermarket off-road shocks are overbuilt with 18mm rods, etc. the problem usually is a failure of the mounting brackets, not the shock. With the stock shock mounts, this mis-match of shock vs. axle travel will eventually cause the shock to rip the stock bracket off the axle tube (which is often a reason for buying the Shock Shifter). When the Shock Shifter is added, but the mis-match problem is not corrected, you will bend and eventually break the SS upper bracket(s). This is not a design flaw with the Shock Shifter and is not warranted! – it means you have the mis-match problem and must correct it. Nth will sell you a new bracket but you must correct the problem or it will simply happen again. With the SS is installed properly along with proper bumpstop spacing, shocks that fit when mounted in the stock locations will also fit when in the SS position and give roughly the same articulation.

That’s all for now. There is more on the site, so you may want to check it out if you found some of this interesting. Happy trails!

-Davin (Raskull)

If you live in a cold climate in the frigid northern reaches of Canada like I do, you may have experienced some issues with your shifter being stiff in the winter. It might even pop out of gear due to the rubber shifter boot becoming quite stiff. This mod is for you! I did this on my 2003 Jeep TJ, and 2005 and later TJs come with the shift boot already installed. Older TJs can be done the same way, but the console is a little different, so you may not be able to follow this step-by-step. I picked up a new shift boot for a 2005 TJ from the dealer for about $40 CDN. If you haven’t guessed, this is only applicable for manual transmissions. I’ll admit that it’s not real leather… but it feels and looks the part.

1: Begin by taking apart your shifter. The cap on the shift knob with the shift pattern can be taken off with a flat blade screwdriver. It will mark up the outside a bit, so be careful you don’t mark it up too much.

3: Remove the shift boot. It’s holding onto a plastic retainer of sorts that clips into the console. If you use your flat blade screwdriver and insert it at the very front where the shift boot touches the console, you can deform the plastic back towards the rear of the jeep and lift upwards. This is a little hard to explain, but if you view the full size image for this step you can see the clips that I am talking about. Just take your time and don’t put too much pressure on it and you will be fine.

5: Now comes the tricky part where you need to think for yourself a bit. The shifter boot for the 2005+ Jeep TJs are attached to a steel base, you can go ahead pull the boot off of that. They have a larger base so you will have to cut it down to fit the plastic retainer from your shift boot anyway. I can’t give you measurements for this, so you will have to do some thinking and a lot of trial and error. Start by cutting off the uneven parts of the leather boot with an exacto knife and a straight edge. You can see me doing this in the image for this step.

6: Once you have the leather shift boot looking how you want, we’re ready to start gluing. If you’ve managed to get the fit right it should fit over top of the plastic retainer, and reach around the bottom of the top lip. It will look something like this image when glued. I made mine a little tight and it needed some stretching to fit, hopefully you do it better. :P To glue it, start by laying a small bead of hot glue on the underside edge of the plastic retainer, and glue one side down. Once you have that, continue on to the other three sides until it’s glued down on all four sides. The corners won’t want to stay down, but that gets hidden pretty well once the plastic retainer is inserted back into the console.

I have had this mod done on mine for about a year and a half now, and it holds up perfectly. I have gotten mud all over it, pressure washed it several times, and it still looks like brand new. It shifts smoothly through all gears with no resistance in any weather, and looks great to boot! Sorry about the pun. Please leave a comment if you used this article for your Jeep. Leave a comment with any findings you discovered that I did not talk about as well. I would love to hear from you, good or bad! If you have any questions or would like to talk about a different topic, go ahead and post up on the myjeeptj.com forums!

-Davin (Raskull)

A cowl snorkle is just what it sounds like. It’s simply an air intake that comes up through your cowl (the spot just back from the hood) instead of sucking air from in the engine bay like a regular intake. This brings your air intake up higher allowing for deeper water crossings. There is definite advantages to this, but please remember that your air intake is not the only thing that can take on water. You also need to worry about your breather lines, etc.. but that is another write-up for another time. You also may want to consider that water splashing up the hood from entering a water hole may enter more readily with this setup, but that’s just an opinion of mine, not fact. Either way, having the air intake up higher can’t be a bad thing for sure.

Tools: 2.5″ hole saw 2″ hole saw drill screwdrivers random hand tools Parts: 1 Mastercraft 2 1/2″ vacuum hose 1 airbox from a 1991 Buick Century with the V6 2 Rubber plumming adapters 2″-3″ 1 Universal shop vac adapter 1 piece of 2″ ID ABS pipe 1 4″ ABS plumming cap 1 packet of 4 angle brackets 1 tube of Automotive Goop (any heavy duty epoxy or adheisive will work) 1 small tube of clear silicone 4 stainless steel screws & acorn nuts 1 can tremclad flat black rust paint 1 6″x4″ piece of thin sheet metal 1 ABS elbow 2″ ID 1 18″ piece of aluminum flat bar